1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a six-sided cube consisting of eight blocks with graphic or pictorial designs provided on their three outside surfaces such that a player may manipulate the blocks to move relative to one another to obtain various design combinations for enjoyment and/or educational purposes.
2. Background Art
Heretofore, block games commonly consist of a plurality of block pieces movably mounted to a central core which may be a spherical ball having a plurality of arms radially extending outwards from its spherical surface. Slider plates are mounted at the end of the arms. The block pieces have a curved inner surface such that when they are placed side by side to one another to form a cube shaped overall block having a spherical space formed within it by the combination of the inner curved surface of the block pieces. Retainer plates are mounted on the curved surface of the block pieces such that the block pieces may be movably mounted to the core by slidably engaging the slider plates with the retainer plates. U.S. Pat. No. 4,344,623 to T. Isobe, U.S. Pat. No. 4,540,177 to T. Horvath and U.S. Pat. No. 4,378,117 to E. Rubik show such block games. However, these known block games are complicated in construction and they are problematic. As shown in the Rubik U.S. Pat. No. 4,378,117, springs must be provided in the radial arms of the core in order to pull the block pieces towards one another so that they may be held closely together. However, due to the spring arm construction, it is very difficult to mount the block pieces to the core. Furthermore, it is extremely difficult to mount the last block piece to the core.